


Something Borrowed;

by Mythril (fantacination)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BUT I NEEDED, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Season 7 Spoilers, for Sheith, post-breakup talk, pre-season 7 fic, watch this get uncanoned in a hot minute on august 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 23:05:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15375387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantacination/pseuds/Mythril
Summary: A short on Adam and Shiro and meeting up after everything is over.Seeing him again was like a Galran fist to his solar plexus.





	Something Borrowed;

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Взять взаймы;](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15596523) by [commander_lils](https://archiveofourown.org/users/commander_lils/pseuds/commander_lils)



Seeing him again was like a Galran fist to his solar plexus.

It knocked his breath out; like he couldn’t breathe, and the world had blacked out to just him, standing in the hallway of the Galaxy Garrison, looking at Shiro.

And the first thing Shiro thought was-- he looked so _young._

Adam was standing right in front of him, back straight like he’d come from a drill, his hair sticking up in a cottony mess, his dusky cheeks chapped like he’d been out running for too long again.

He could’ve stepped out of a picture. He could’ve stepped out of every memory Shiro berated himself with as he lay awake in his cell.  

He’d spent so much time thinking over those words- over his decision. If he hadn’t pushed to be the pilot, Sam and Matt Holt wouldn’t have gone.  If maybe he’d been less pigheaded nobody would have been in danger. Were his dreams worth two of the most brilliant scientists the earth had? He hadn’t been ready to pay that tithe.

He’d thought over his life, each time he’d survived another match, and Adam’s had been the face of regret in his nightmares, overlaid in the purple glow of the Galran lights.

He’d looked at the weapon where his bum arm had been and laughed. He’d asked himself why he was still fighting.

And then he’d remember the launch. How glorious the ship had looked- state of the art, cutting edge technology, ready to take him to the fingertips of the stars. And he’d remembered Keith. Keith who’d looked at him without pity, who’d smiled at his lame jokes and told him he’d take all his spots while he was gone.

Keith and how he lived like a glass diamond on a knife edge, so ready to fight fate on his own terms.

He’d wanted to see Keith, at the end. Every time then and since. He knew that now.

He looked at Adam and he saw how young he was. How scared he’d been. How unprepared to deal with the idea of fighting something for the rest of your life; with death. Adam had always been the careful one. He hadn’t liked taking the risks- had scolded Shiro for his daredevil attempts. And Shiro had always pushed. Until he'd simply pushed too much for him.

Objectively, Adam had started at the Garrison when he did-  they were the same age. And Shiro had been young, too. He’d loved the banter over the best techniques,  the way he’d fuss over Shiro to show affection, how he always made Shiro’s coffee too sweet.

For Adam, three years had done nothing to dent his cheeks or his unruly hair. He hadn’t been fighting for his life, battling hostile aliens. He hadn’t seen new worlds and peoples, living the best they can. He hadn’t lost a limb or bonded with a Lion or dispersed into interdimensional ether.

He hadn’t died.

And he hadn’t been brought back, every time, through the sheer will of one man.

Adam’s eyes skittered, his shoulders uneasy.

So Shiro moved first. “Hey.”

It made Adam stop. It made him look at him, really look, and his shoulders quake, his mouth twist. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.” Shiro had known it from the start. He’d known him too well not to. Not that it hadn’t hurt. Not that it hadn’t made his gut clench and his stomach twist itself up his throat. Not that he hadn’t cried, alone in the space that had been theirs, thinking of the day they first met.

But he’d loved him enough to forgive him all the same.

"Me, too." For all the futures they couldn't have. Because he'd made that decision, too. It had been a long time in coming. A fight with a worn tread like a vintage tire.

“I shouldn’t have done that to you,” Adam continues, the words stumbling over themselves, gushing out of a stoppered dam, a plaster with three years of regret. “I shouldn’t have made you pick and I shouldn’t have made it about me. I-- you deserved better than that.” He inhaled sharply. “Than me.”

“I’m sorry I believed them. You were-- you were always the best pilot the world had ever seen,” Adam said, exasperated and in awe all at once. “You made it- you made your dreams come true.”

“Not alone. And--- not the best pilot, anymore,” Shiro said, smile easy. “This world or out.”

“Yeah, I kind of find that hard to believe,” Adam snorted. “All those years I spent trying to catch up to you- and I never did, not even after. It must be some amazing alien that can outfly you.”

“You’ve met him, actually,” Shiro said, smile widening into grin.

Adam squinted. “What? Oh god, you don’t mean those cadets, do you? That flight student was ripe to drop---” he stopped and his voice softened. “It’s him, isn’t it? I thought-- he looked a little familiar, but he’s-- wow, what did you feed him?”

“The way I hear it, crab meat and love,” Shiro said wryly.

Adam shook his head, hand scrapping up at his hair and ruffling it up further like a fluffed hen. “That’s insane. He’s- he’s a kid-- he got _dishonorably discharged._ ” Adam looked up. The realization was a startling dawn on his face. “--And you love him.”

“I do,” Shiro said, helplessly, butterflies tickling his stomach. “And he loves me, too.”  

“That’s… that’s it, huh?” Adam said, deflating. “I hope he deserves you. I’ve never-- you’ve changed. So much.” His face softened, looking at Shiro, taking in the hair and the scars and the fine lines and painted a picture between them. “And you’re happy.”  

“He saved me,” Shiro said, a quiet echo. “I don’t know where we’re going, yet, but I know we’ll be together.”

Adam closed his eyes briefly, the light glinting off his glasses. “Then he’s a better man than I ever was. And maybe this’ll be more useful to you than I thought.”

He dug into his pocket and presented Shiro with a familiar chain, with an equally familiar silver ring threaded through it. The band was simple- they hadn’t been anything official- just the class ring from their graduation from the advanced class, etched with Shiro’s name and rank.

“They-- didn’t really know who to give it to. We never repealed the quarters so they just thought--”

Shiro accepted it a bit numbly, the ring rolling in his palm. “You kept it?”

“I messed up, but I’m not a monster. Cut me some slack, will ya? I just-- it was the last thing anyone really had of you. If I’d known it’d be the brat who took out Iverson’s eye-- well, I probably wouldn’t have given it to him, but I would’ve _thought_ about it.” He shrugged, always so sure of his own limits.

Adam breathed in deep, looking Shiro in the eye.“Take care of yourself, Takashi. Don’t die out there, saving the world.”

“I don’t think he’d let me,” Shiro laughed, rueful. “And thanks. For everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> WE ARE LIVING THE SHEITH TIMELINE GUYS AND GALS. 
> 
> Also I found the discussion on adam a bit interesting- but ultimately, since Lauren said it was a long and beautiful relationship, I think, I hope they become friends again. Shiro could use friends, too. I mean Matt's off doing his rebel thing who's going to tell him "you've never been happier"? 
> 
> ALSO, guys episode premier proved to us that Shiro has EXCELLENT TASTE and a keen eye. After all, in a crowd of people he chose Keith. 
> 
> This CAN be taken as somewhat a sequel to the other pre-s7 fic, [_something old; something new_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14994224), but stands alone too. :') No beta, I just wanted to get this out before August 10. 
> 
> I had a lot of feels. SHIRO IS GAY. KEITH HAS NEVER BEEN A MORE OBVIOUS GAY. And probably Shiro is to blame for everything including inspiring the one person who'd wind up saving him and the universe. 
> 
> SCREAM WITH ME PLEASE.


End file.
